South Korea has surpassed Japan in the number of Starbucks stores, making it the third-largest market for the coffee chain after the United States and China. Despite rising global coffee bean prices last year, the country’s coffee market continues to grow, with increasing imports of coffee beans.
According to Starbucks on Jan. 30, South Korea had 2,009 stores as of the end of last year, 18 more than Japan’s 1,991. Since opening its first location near Ewha Womans University in 1999, Starbucks Korea has expanded rapidly, surpassing 2,000 stores in just 25 years. The company added 500 stores in the last four years alone, which is an average of one new store every three days.
Globally, Starbucks operates 40,576 stores, with 17,049 in the U.S. and 7,685 in China. In terms of stores per million people, South Korea has 38.6, trailing the U.S. (51.7) but far ahead of Japan (15.9) and China (5.5).
This growth reflects South Korean consumers’ strong coffee culture. The number of cafes in South Korea topped 100,000 in 2022, double the number of convenience stores. Despite higher international coffee bean prices caused by climate-related crop problems last year, Korea’s coffee bean imports grew by 4.8% compared to the previous year.